The Mourning/Memory Contest Continues...and so does the voting for the fall contests

This morning I'd like to post David Pointer's eloquent "Beyond Eugenics Laws," another entry in the Mourning/Memory Contest, which ends March 15.  

Beyond Eugenics Laws

Spare Americans receive extra police supervision

Spare Americans receive extra toxic chemicals in air, water or planted in their neighborhoods

Pesticide cans wearing paper or vapor crowns receive preferential treatment in court

Pesticide cans more common than jobs or militarized police go about their business anonymously

Pollution invisibility by chemistry oversees surveillance cameras, carefully mapped out police patrol districts and highly sprayed food stamp grub

Pollution doesn’t want to racially profile so it constantly doses the poor too

Justified deadly force again jangles its vast variable-footed-jackboots while English professors

warn students not to overuse alliteration like Agent Orange under a kitchen sink

Justified deadly force sometimes gets feverish, intimidated, scared or overwhelmed riding through poor, minority and dangerous neighborhoods

Profit margin mania has its trained hirelings sifting through the economically excluded crowds

Profit margin mania again hides its international crimes while pointing its domestic innocence to its overmedicated populations

Chemically infested race cards are sometimes discovered behind casino dumpsters and urban curbs

Chemically infested race cards sometimes float over the tower fences into for profit-prison-system

About the Author: David S. Pointer was the son of a piano playing bank robber who died when David was 3 years old. David later served in the United States Marine Corps military police. Currently, David serves on the advisory panel at “Writing for Peace.”

Jerry A. Scuderi's "Men in Blue" provides another perspective on the contest:

           Men in Blue

Have you ever needed justice ?

Lost control of word or deed ?

Suffer life   loose or busted ?

Do fears transcend what you can see ?

Are you pressed by cornered darkness .

Walk quickly to your ride at night ?

Silhouette phantoms ?   Do confess .

Would you pray , submit ,   flee , or fight ?

Have you want of a policeman ,

knowing not what you have lured ?

Have you straggled with your life in hand

as death lurks at your door ?

Respect the man and his calling .

Look beyond your selfish woes .

Find he shields events appalling .

Let him lead you past   those stones  in  rows . 

                                                          Jerry A. Scuderi   01-02-15

The Black 47 song "Walk All the Days" is written from the perspective of a NYPD member. In fact, one member of that group may have been a former policeman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKsQaDavaMg

Black 47 also performs songs such as "Fire of Freedom": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhV2_7rcu0o

The group is also known for its tributes to historical figures such as James Connolly and Bobby Sands: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wukfdjJv340

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8D_uN-73S0

It is also known for less lofty songs like "Maria's Wedding":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im96zRKpxD8

Black 47 has recently disbanded, but its leader Larry Kirwan still performs as a solo act.  It would be interesting to hear how he weighs in on the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tariq Rice, Wenjian Liu, Rafael Ramos, et al.  

In the meantime, please vote in the fall contests!  I am extending the deadline to March 15...no further!

Everyone is eligible for Thelma's Prize:

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/at-lastvoting-for-fall-contests.html

Here are the list for the works that are eligible for the Monk Prize and those that are eligible for the Clark Prize:

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/vote-for-monk-and-vote-for-clark-too.html

Finally, we have the Local Prize for DC-area writers as well as a new prize, Callie's Prize for visual imagery:

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-local-prizeand-now-callies-prize.html

Please send your votes to thesongis@gmail.com.